COLUMN: Got life?

Being at Central Michigan University and meeting all of the new people I have has been such an amazing experience. I have witnessed the marvel that is CMU tailgating, I have inquired about Brenda, I have become involved in student organizations and am so thankful for the multitude of opportunities this campus provides.

However, above all else, I am thankful for my mother, because she gave me this incredible life. Unfortunately, it is not the same for more than one million children every year.

Since 1973, an estimated 50 million babies have been aborted. As a former fetus, it’s hard to believe that I might not be experiencing all of the wonderful opportunities I am.

Being pro-life is more than being against abortion.

As an executive chair member for Students for Life at CMU, it makes me proud that our mission statement explains that we believe in protecting the dignity of all human life from fertilization to natural death.

Most people avoid the question of whether abortion is OK in the case of rape. Often times, they admit exceptions to rape, incest and the health of the mother, but are those really exceptions to the rule?

If a woman did not choose to engage in sex, why should she have to carry to term a child that was the result of her forced union? I am against abortion because it takes the life of an innocent baby.

Do the circumstances of a child’s conception change the fact that he or she is a living, pre-born person?

Students for Life of America poses a hypothetical situation to this question: suppose a woman conceived a child in rape and chose to carry this child to term and raise her son. After five years, she decides that the little boy’s presence in her life is a burden, and he looks too much like his biological father.

Should that mother have the right to kill her five-year-old son? Obviously not. Abortion is an act of violence that kills a living human being. The circumstances surrounding conception do not change that reality.

If your roommate, professor, favorite sports player, RA or even your best friend was conceived in rape, would you view them differently? If you do not, is that not an unfair double standard? If a child conceived in rape has a right to live after they are born, then why should they not be protected before birth?

Some would argue that a fetus is not a human life and therefore abortion is not murder. The pro-life stance is simply that a developing fetus is a human life. We have a being that exists within the mother that will grow up to have a life of its own. It is human, and denying that being the opportunity to live is immoral.

Being pro-life is about defining human life as it should be defined and being willing to defend that life. It is about being supportive to new mothers and post-abortion women at the same time.

Most of all, it is about love and making sure that everybody gets the right to feel that love.

Editor's note: Betzi Sawchuck is executive chair for Students For Life.